Heavy rainfall and flood took their toll on the San Vicente Elementary School yesterday, forcing school principal Janet Villagomez to cancel classes for today.<\/p>\n
According to Villagomez, 29 of the school\u2019s classrooms experienced leaks from the roof or flooding due to the excess runoff from higher grounds. <\/p>\n
The school\u2019s office also experienced major flooding, with the water level reportedly reaching almost a foot high. Even as the rain and flood calmed down, Villagomez walked into her office with about two to three inches of water remaining.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just so bad. We even had to turn the electricity off for safety. The classrooms were flooded and now we have a lot of cleaning to do,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
During the flood, students were escorted to the school bus stop located on higher ground. <\/p>\n
Villagomez announced that all students are not to report to school today. She said, though, that teachers and staff must report for cleanup.<\/p>\n
Villagomez said that several school supplies and books were damaged; however, the extent and cost have yet to be determined.<\/p>\n
There were no injuries.<\/p>\n
Oleai Elementary School also experienced several leaks but school principal Celina Romolor-Route said that there were no major effects. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe leaks are currently being addressed,\u201d she said. \u201cA staff of the [Public School System Capital Improvement Project] was here to assess it, but I will also conduct my own assessment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kagman Elementary School, for its part, did not sustain any damage. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Saipan Mayor Juan B. Tudela announced Wednesday morning that the Mayor\u2019s Office would continue with the road cleanup due to the heavy rainfall. <\/p>\n
Tudela said the mayor\u2019s office would continue to help in clearing up any damage in the San Antonio, Garapan, San Vicente, and the Chalan Kiya golf course area. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy people and I went down to those areas so that people there can have access [to move their cars] and now it\u2019s almost done,\u201d said Tudela.<\/p>\n
The Mayor\u2019s Office has been working to clear out the roads that were filled with corals and rocks brought by the floods.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of [the people] called and said that they cannot get out of their car, so we had to remove those rocks. Now that the flooding is back we have to go back again [and help],\u201d said Tudela. (with Cassie Fejeran)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Heavy rainfall and flood took their toll on the San Vicente Elementary School yesterday, forcing school principal Janet Villagomez to cancel classes for today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}